The Temple was dedicated to the Isis, the goddess of love and beauty, so Ibrahim called it the romantic temple. He told us that the temple had been relocated because the original island of Philae was flooded when the Egyptians built their dams. UNESCO came and divided the temple up into hundreds of large blocks and relocated the temple 60 metres away onto the island of Agilkia, where it now resides.
The temple was fantastic, the location on the river meant that there was a lovely breeze blowing around and through the temple and the carvings on the temple wall were fantastic. Once we finished we had a seat at the cafe near the temple in the shade and enjoyed the nice view. We left Philae/Agilkia island and headed back to the main land.
Our bus headed up to the High Dam where we got to marvel at the massive piece of engineering. It was pretty cool. The dam is 110 metres high and 3800 metres long and generates 2.1 GW of electricity which is enough to supply all of Egypt and enables Egypt to export power to other nearby countries.
From the High Dam we went to a red granite quarry that was used by the ancient egyptians for their temples. The granite quarry was only included in one person on the tour's itinerary but the rest of us were given the option to visit the quarry if we paid the entrance fee. Another lady and I took up the offer while the others waited on the bus. The quarry was amazing - you could see evidence of the ancient egyptians and remnants of their work. There was also a humongous obelisk still lying in the quarry. Ibrahim informed us that it was commissioned by Queen Hetshepsut and was going to be the biggest at 42 metres long (they're usually only 25 or so) but it cracked as they were attempting to lift it up so they had to abandon it but the granite had already been carved into an obelisk shape.
We got back on the bus and had a quick stop at a few banks to change some more money (damn tips!) before heading to the waterfront to board our felucca. It was fantastic. We were sailing peacefully along the Nile with the wind in our hair and the sun shine coming in from the sides. Our captain and his sailors were Nubians so they got us to sing and dance along with them at one point. They then used the opportunity while we were on there to try and sell us some stuff but they did it nicely so we actually bought something.
The felucca stopped at Kitchener Island where the Botanical Gardens of Aswan are located and we disembarked for a stroll through the gardens. I managed to get separated from the group because a heap of them went off to the loo and the rest of us were standing around waiting for them when this local guy started following me around, trying to show me stuff and giving me stuff from the gardens. During this time, the rest of the party had returned and started walking up through the gardens, leaving me behind with the dude. He asked me for a tip (surprise surprise) which I gave him and then kind of expected him to go away. Unfortunately, he didn't stop there and proceeded to climb a lotus tree and bring me a lotus blossom, which he then asked for another tip. I told him no because I'd already tipped him and I didn't ask for the flower. Needless to say it didn't end well with the guy taking the lotus flower and going off in a huff and me being cranky at Steve because I couldn't be angry at the group for abandoning me to the hawkers.
Other than that irritating experience, the gardens were actually quite nice. There was a fantastic view on one side of the desert and on the other side of the river. We sat in the cafe at the end of the gardens until our boat came and picked us up and then headed back to the ship. We were meant to go back on the felucca but the tour company had been worried that the wind might have died down so we wouldn't be able to sail so they had organised for a motor boat instead. Not quite as atmospheric but still nice. Unfortunately as we approached the wharf being in a boat wasn't quite so nice as we had to go in between a set of cruise ships to disembark and the ships were all spewing out diesel fumes.
We struggled through the noxious fumes and boarded the ship in time for lunch. After lunch we had a really relaxing afternoon in the pool and on the sun deck. I had a snooze while Steve read. We then dragged ourselves down to the cabin and started packing our suitcase ready to leave the next day. We had been given the choice to go on an excursion to a Nubian village but we had declined because we were a bit excursioned out for the day which was unfortunate as the members of the group who had gone said it was fantastic. Nubians keep live crocodiles in tanks in their homes to ward off evil spirits and scare any would be robbers. Crazy!
We had a meeting with Ibrahim and the company representative at 6:30 to find out about flights for the next day so we headed down to the lounge. We winced in pain as one group got told that they had a 3:30 am wake up call. Thankfully ours wasn't until 7:45 am so there was lots of joking about trading tours and early wake up calls during dinner. We exchanged contact details with the ones that we wanted to keep in touch with and then headed upstairs to watch a Nubian performance. There was singing and dancing and they even dragged the whole room up on the dance floor at one stage. We headed off to bed soon after due to tiredness and the fact that one of the instruments they had just brought out was some sort of horn thingy like what snake charmers use and it was loud!
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